Tamir Rice’s Family Settles With Cleveland For $6M

The Rice family attorney described the settlement as historic, but painful.

Cleveland and Tamir Rice’s family reached a $6 million settlement on Monday in a wrongful death lawsuit,ABC News reports.

Subodh Chandra, the family attorney, described the settlement as historic, according to ABC News.

But he added, via the Associated Press: “The resolution is nothing to celebrate because a 12-year-old child needlessly lost his life.”

Tamir was playing with a pellet gun at a Cleveland recreational center when Police Officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback shot him in November 2014. A video captured the moment when their patrol car, responding to a 911 call, pulls up to Tamir and Loehmann shoots the boy within seconds. They reportedly were not aware that a witness said the gun was probably a fake and Tamir looked like a juvenile.

The fatal shooting contributed to the national outcry against excessive police force in regards to Black males and protests in Cleveland. In that tense atmosphere, a grand jury declined to charge the officers. Meanwhile, a federal civil rights investigation is pending.

Tamir’s mother, Samaria Rice, said the two officers failed to administer first aid and caused intentional distress by the way they mistreated her and her daughter following the shooting, ABC News reports. Her wrongful death suit targeted the officers, dispatchers, and Cleveland.

The network reports that the U.S. District Court filed an ordered saying that Cleveland will pay Tamir’s estate $3 million this year and the remainder in 2017. Cleveland did not admit to wrongdoing.